Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

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278 The Life of Muhammad
Khazraj never rallied to one man before or after him until Islam came, a~
they did to him. \-Vith him was a man of Aus whom Aus obeyed, Abu
'Amir 'Abdu 'Amr b. ~ayfj b. al-l\u'man, one of B. I,)ubay'a b. Zayd,
the father of Hanzala 'the washed' on the day of l'1;md.' He had been an
ascetic in pag~n d~ys ~nd had worn a coarse hair gar~e~tand was callc~ 't~e
monk'. These two men \vere damned through theIr hIgh status and It (ltd
them harm.
'Abdullah b. Ubayy's people had made a sort of jewelled diadem to
crO\vn him and make him their king when God sent HIs apostle to them;
so \vhen his people forsook him in favour of Islam ~le :vas fi.l1cd with cnmitv
realizing that the apostle had deprived him of his kmgshlp. However,
wh~n he sa\",! that his people \vere determined to go over to Islam he \vent
too, but umvillingly, retaining his enmity and dissimulating. .
Abu 'Amir stubbarnlv refused to believe and abandoned hIs people
\vhen they went over to ~Islam and went off to I\Jecca with about ten followers
te: get away from Islam and the apostle. Muhammad b. Abu
Umama from one of the family of J.:lanzala b. Abu 'Amir told me that the
apostle said, 'Don't call him the monk but the evil-doer.'
Jafar b. 'Abdullah b. Abu'l-J.:lakam whose memory went back to apostolic
days and who was a narrator of tradition told .me that bef~re he left for
l'vlecea AbU. 'Amir came to the apostle in l\Iedma to ask him about the
religion he had brought.
'The ljanifiya, the religion of Abraham.'
'That is what I follow.'
'You do not.'
'But I do l You, l\1uhammad, have introduced into the lJanifIya things
which do not belong to it.'
'I have not. I have brought it pure and white.'
'l\lay God 1